Just losing
by I'm Nova
Summary: Why didn't Mike go to John's wedding? Headcanon of mine, mostly. Answer to the prompt Making a bet, fourth of the Let's Write Sherlock challenge.


_Disclaimer: I own nothing. _

Just losing

Mike Stamford feels mildly guilty about missing John's wedding. He can't help himself, though. The whole thing is utterly wrong. And if it goes through, it will cost Mike a lot of money, so he's pretty annoyed with John, Mary, their best man and the world in general.

Because, you see, even without ever meeting her, Mike sees things eye to eye with Mrs. Hudson. Sherlock and John are clearly soulmates, meant to be together forever. Which makes him Cupid – well, sort of – and he's pretty proud of that.

If you'd known the both of them before and after meeting each other, you'd agree too. Yes, John is vehemently not gay and Sherlock is...who knows, probably just weird, but that has no bearing on their happy end, or so Mike believes firmly. Because _soulmates, _you know. Sooner or later both men would get it through their selectively thick skulls.

Mike was so sure of this that he bet with several incredulous colleagues that John and Sherlock would – eventually – become a couple. Not that John knew, or he'd give them all hell. Then, Sherlock was dead, John was devastated and Mike and the others felt so bad that they called the whole thing off even if Mike had technically lost the bet.

They thought it would be the end of that, but miracles actually happen (which proves, according to Mike, that Fate itself couldn't bear such an ending). When one of his colleagues mentions the old bet, Mike proudly announces that he'd be ready to restart it.

"You do know John is engaged, don't you, Mike?" is the baffled reply.

Yes, he knows, but he believes in Johnlock (so he lurks online with other shippers and picked up the term; sue him). No girl ever survived Sherlock being Sherlock. Why would Mary? Not to mention that Mike secretly hopes that all the missing each other like crazy these two must have gone through might have opened at least one of the two men's eyes. You know the saying about absence and heart.

He had really no doubt, but then John tells him about what a great wedding planner Sherlock is and how Mary and he are getting along swimmingly, and Mike almost can't believe him. He can't have been so grossly mistaken, can he?

John can't marry Mary. Nothing against her, as far as Mike knows she's perfectly nice and clever and witty, and will undoubtedly make someone very happy, but _John_? When Sherlock is back, right there for him? He doesn't need her anymore to stay afloat now that he has the real thing. Is it possible that John doesn't feel it?

Of course there's the chance that Mike is the dumbest, most deluded person on the planet, who wilfully romanticized the best friendship ever. And if Mike doesn't have with any of his friends a quarter of what John and Sherlock have, he should stop wondering and simply start being envious.

On the other hand, there's always the chance that Sherlock, with his undeniable taste for dramatics, is planning to object at the ceremony and consequently elope. Now that would be a sight. Mike can't go, though.

Because if it doesn't happen, if he's been wrong all along, a fool, he doesn't want to know it. See it. He doesn't want to risk getting a bit drunk and whining to John, "But she's not your soulmate". That would only make John rightly furious. And he cherishes their friendship. But still he stands by his beliefs, and if only they would realize it, everyone would be so much happier, he's sure. Well, not Mary. But sometimes collateral damage is inevitable.

The wedding comes and goes, Mike dutifully pays up, and then he sets to milk Molly for gossip. She wasn't in the bet, but had always refuted Mike's speculations and the evidence he brought. Obviously, as Sherlock would say, since she still hadn't given up on the detective at the time.

Mike doesn't expect what she has to tell. Not after the wedding. Clearly, undeniably – even for her – Sherlock proved that Mike's theories were, at the very least, only half wrong. Mike thinks that he'd rather have been an entirely deluded fool.


End file.
